Both Sony and Microsoft had impressive showing at Gamescom this year in Germany, with Sony touting a plethora of impressive indie games and Microsoft showing off gameplay footage of the surprisingly great looking Quantum Break, as well as revealing that Rise of the Tomb Raider will be a timed Xbox exclusive.

Then throw Ubisoft into the mix with Far Cry 4/Assassin’s Creed: Unity and deciding who won Gamescom becomes an even more difficult task. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference when deciding which developer or publisher ended up with the best press conference and selection of titles at big gaming press events like this though. With this in mind, unlike most press conferences, Gamescom really does seem to have a true winner.

Often controversial Japanese game developer Hideo Kojima managed to almost completely steal the show with his cryptically revealed Silent Hill reboot called Silent Hills.

The game was first shown off as P.T. towards the end of Sony’s press conference via a trailer that left many observers confused. At the end of the title’s standard video game press event ‘sizzle reel,’ a fake developer called ‘7780s Studio’ was listed as P.T’s developer.

Naturally this lead many gamers, particularly those who frequent NeoGAF to assume that Kojima, the man behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, might have something to do with the title. When his upcoming Metal Gear game was first revealed, a similar farce was created actually behind the project. Many observers expected this was the same situation with Sony’s mysterious P.T. and it turned out they were absolutely correct.

Hideo Kojima is a controversial personality in the gaming industry, both for his often off-colour comments and how his titles frequently depict women in an archaic and sexist way. But regardless of how you feel about him, he knows how to put on a show and get people talking about his video games. Speculation about what exactly P.T. is and how its ‘interactive trailer’ would actually work, was rampant on popular gaming message boards and enthusiast websites.

Since the last Silent Hill game, Silent Hill: Book of Memories, was released way back in 2012 for the Vita, the franchise is perfect for a revival, especially considering how rare survival horror games are these days, although it’s unclear what Kojima’s plans are for the game. Remember when the Resident Evil franchise was actually terrifying? I think I might have almost forgotten already.

The fact that Kojima is directing the game’s development would typically be a point of concern for me but Guillermo del Toro, the man behind the awesome Strain book series (it’s now an okay TV show too) and Norman Reedus, the actor who plays Daryl, basically the reason many people still watch that show, are involved in the project as well.

Directly after the game’s reveal, a demo was immediately available for download on the PlayStation Network and, to the surprise of Kojima, who reportedly thought it would take people approximately a week to figure the ruse out, video footage of the game’s scare filled demo started popping up everywhere. Although it’s still unclear how scary events are actually triggered in the P.T. demo or why they occur, reportedly even to people who have completed the game.

Silent Hill is back and actually looks pretty scary this time around. NeoGAF

In an industry full of the same typical trailers and silly viral ad campaigns, Kojima’s approach to getting people excited about his titles is refreshing, and this is part of why Silent Hills garnered so much attention at Gamescom.

Not very much is known about Silent Hills yet but the game’s P.T. demo is played from a first-person perspective and features photo-realistic graphics, crying baby noises and a mysterious pale creature skulking around a dark, vacant house. If Silent Hills brings survival horror back to its roots, which from the short demo we’ve already seen from the game, it really looks like it will, I’m very excited.

“Originally we were thinking a game that would make you pee your pants, [now] we are aiming for a game that will make you s**t your pants,” explained Kojima with his trademark smirk plastered across his face.

As over the top as this statement is, Silent Hills’ direction is good news for fans of the survival horror genre and early Silent Hill titles.

The original Silent Hill still remains one the scariest survival horror titles ever released, in part due to the constant layer of mist covering almost every part of the game’s environment. Even though it was added to the game due to the PSOne’s technical limitations, it actually ended up being the series’ trademark and part of what made the original Silent Hill so terrifying. You never knew what strange, deranged creature would come hobbling out of the fog to try to rip you to pieces.